Everyone is an ambassador for their country in any little way each contributes.
It can be through representing the country as Miss PNG or as a youth participating in hosting the FIFA Under 20 Women’s World Cup in the country, next month.
The six contestants to the Miss Pacific Island Pageant (MPIP) PNG visited at least 800 youths at the Rita Flynn Courts today, with this message.
The youths, from various settlements around the city, are part of the Urban Youth Development Program by National Capital District Commission, currently undergoing training to facilitate the FIFA Under 20 Women’s World Cup.
Reigning Miss PNG and Pacific Islands Abigail Havora told the youths that their jobs were no different from each other.
“Just as you are an ambassador, I am an ambassador too. You wear your blue shirt, I wear my dress, you wear your badge, I wear my crown, but we do the same thing, we represent our country.
“When we take up responsibilities like this, we carry the whole nation on our shoulders because they look at us individuals and they see PNG.
So how do we best represent our country, we go back to the values, our values that founded our society. Before education and religion came into play, we had societies that had values.
“So when they look at PNG, they see respect, compassion, a friendly nation. We can use these values to bring them to surface and show that we are not as bad as they think we are,” Havora said.
The six contestants were grateful for the opportunity with the youths, an eye opener into the pageant.
Havora said the crowd response showed the support Papua New Guineans have for the pageant.
“This goes to show us that PNG does support what we do despite what others may say. These people here support us and they take pride. And when we come into the pageant, we keep shinning and show PNG culture, the support will keep coming in and we’ll keep sending PNG women through education. And when you educate a woman, you educate a nation.”
“It was really good that we got to speak to them.”
